As you know, the forum has been running for just over two years now and thanks to your support, continues to grow on a daily basis.

You’re aware that we’ve had paying advertisers in the past and will continue to do so. We’ve been very lenient in regard to members advertising their wares via their signatures and we’re happy to think that this has allowed people to start up cottage industries that maybe wouldn’t have happened. Selling your wares to a pretty much captive audience is as good as it gets.

You’ll also have noticed that signatures have gotten bigger and more elaborate too, as a sales medium. These not only help to generate greater sales for the chaps doing the selling, but also use up our bandwidth.

As our membership grows, it’ll be pretty definite that more and more small, or large, businesses will join up. If we continue to allow anyone who feels the need to advertise for free, to do so via their signature, we would lose our main advertisers, and rightly so. Why should they pay for their advertising when others are getting it free gratis?

The upshot of this is that from December 1st 2013, anyone who wishes to advertise their goods, whether it be a website or a link to a direct contact, will have to pay for the right to do so.

There will be several options open to them:

*A lineage link in their signature

*A photographic or logo link in their signature

*A small ad that shows when a given forum section opens

*A header banner that shows on every page complete with their own page in the Forum Advertisers section

All of these options will have a different price scale attached to them, which can be obtained from either Geoff or myself. These rates will not be handed out randomly, but only to those who prove to us that they have a product to sell.

To attempt to protect the sales of all sellers, we will look at the products being sold so that there will be as little conflict of interests as possible. Inevitably, there will be products that are being sold by more than one seller, but we will endeavour to reduce this as much as possible.

With all sellers, we will be watching the forum to ensure that threads aren’t ruined by “I sell these at a great price” posts, as this will detract from the thread content. Sellers will, however, have full sales section access for their products.

As has been said, this will take effect from December 1st, so there is a one month amnesty (on top of the two years we’ve already given). After this date, any unauthorized advertising will be removed by admin.